In recent Eagle Ford news, ConocoPhillips increased its Eagle Ford reserve estimates in early April 2014 by 39% from 1.8 billion to 2.5 billion bbls of oil in place. Company officials say production is expected to exceed 250,000 boe/d in the Eagle Ford by 2017. That’s nearly 100,000 more BOE than the company’s target goal at the end of 2013.

The U.S. rig count stayed flat at 1831 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 316 rigs were targeting natural gas (6 more than the previous week) and 1,510 were targeting oil in the U.S. (7 less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 884or ~48% of rigs active in the U.S. were running in Texas.

Baker Hughes rig count is quoted here. Baker Hughes also releases its own Eagle Ford Rig Count that covers the 14 core counties (217 rigs). The rig count published on EagleFordShale.com includes a 30 county area impacted by Eagle Ford development. A full list of the counties included can be found in the table near the bottom of this article.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

The natural gas rig count remained flat at 16 rigs running by the end of last week. Average rig counts for natural gas production in 2012 were around 82 and then dropped to around 41 in 2013. Natural gas prices stayed relatively flat from last week at $4.76/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.

The oil rig count decreased by 4 to 247 rigs running by the end of last week. WTI oil prices increased slightly, trading at $104.35/bbl on Friday afternoon. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $100.75/bbl on April 17th.

A total of 229 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 21 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 13 rigs are drilling vertical wells. Karnes, La Salle, Dimmit, McMullen and Webb counties each have at minimum 25 rigs running. Karnes County has the highest rig count this week at 29. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County:

Eagle Ford Operated Rig Count By Company

SmithBits no longer reports its operated rig count, but we’ll have updated number for you from a new source soon. Until then, you can reference our numbers from mid-April. There has not been a significant change in the overall rig count since this date:

Operator Name

Apr-13

BHP (Petrohawk)

28

EOG Resources

25

Marathon Oil

18

Chesapeake

16

ConocoPhillips

10

Pioneer Natural

10

Anadarko

9

Lewis Petroleum

8

Murphy Oil

7

Plains Exploration

7

Talisman Energy (Statoil)

7

EP Energy

6

Halcon Resources

6

Hunt Oil

6

Swift Energy

6

Rosetta Resources

6

Cabot Oil & Gas

5

SM Energy

5

Shell

4

Carrizo Oil & Gas

3

All Others

50+

What is the Rig Count?

The Eagle Ford Shale Rig Count is an index of the total number of oil & gas drilling rigs running across a 30 county area in South Texas. The South Texas rigs referred to in this article are for ALL drilling reported by Baker Hughes and not solely wells targeting the Eagle Ford formation. All land rigs and onshore rig data shown here are based upon industry estimates provided by the Baker Hughes Rig Count and/or Smith Service Co’s (Schlumberger) Smith Rig Count.

ConocoPhillips increased its Eagle Ford reserve estimates in early April 2014 by 39% from 1.8 billion to 2.5 billion bbls of oil in place. Company officials say production is expected to exceed 250,000 boe/d in the Eagle Ford by 2017. That’s nearly 100,000 more BOE than the company’s target goal at the end of 2013.

Clayton Williams Energy grew its Eagle Ford oil production in the fourth quarter of 2013 over 2012 by ~430% from 312 b/d – 1,354 b/d.

The increase in production is a sign that the company is gaining confidence in moving forward with its Eagle Ford operations. In an early February 2013 statement, the company alluded that additional drilling and production data would be needed to determine if the Eagle Ford Shale drilling program could be economically viable.

In 2014, EOG will be focusing a large portion of its $8.1 – $8.3 billion capital budget in the Eagle Ford Shale. This decision comes on the heels of increased well productivity and initial production rates in the play in 2013.

The company has plans to drill 520 net wells across its Eagle Ford acreage. At that rate, the company has a drilling inventory in the Eagle Ford of more than 12 years.